ClickThrough Marketing’s end-of-year roundup

Wow, is it the end of another year already? We’ve done so much stuff in 2012, and we wanted to share some of our favourite moments with you – with a handy infographic! Print it out and keep it in your pocket, if you like.

And scroll down for ClickThrough copywriter Oliver Pyper’s take on the past 12 months…

Phew!

We’d call 2012 the year that never slowed down but, in our experience, the world of Internet marketing just gets more exciting and fast-paced as the years go by.

Our SEO, PPC, content and management teams have worked their marketing lobes harder than ever to deliver great results and innovative solutions to our clients.

So whilst we catch our breath, we’d like to share some of ClickThrough’s biggest achievements throughout 2012, as well as a few photo-album moments involving our staff:

We did everything RITE

Results. Innovation. Trust. Excellence. Four things that have always driven the work we do. This year, though, we made it our mantra. From on-page content to client meetings, we’ve done everything we can to ensure that we’re doing things the RITE way, instating it as ClickThrough’s official vision and values in January.

We created teams of experts

We’re not mincing our words when we say that we’ve got industry-leading experts on board here at ClickThrough Marketing. To become part of our team, you’ve got to strive for the best.

But we wanted to show this expertise to the world. So we’ve encouraged our staff to take tough Google exams to prove and hone their skills.

The result? Nine of our staff members now hold at least one Google certificate.

It doesn’t stop there – Martyn Wright, our PPC implementation manager, is one of only 32 people in the whole country to have passed the full hat trick of Google Adwords exams, and the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ). He’s also passed the Bing Ads accreditation!

And Neil Paterson, our web development manager, is one of 12 people to have passed the GAIQ, and the Google AdWords Reporting and Analysis exam.

Joe Farley and Sam Thomas, PPC team members, have the GAIQ certificate, and the Google Adwords Reporting and Analysis certificate – a feat they share with just 123 others in the country.

We shared this expertise

When big changes happen, it pays to be prepared. So when the European Union enforced its cookie directive, which made it necessary to allow users to ‘opt out’ of a website’s cookies, we released a free whitepaper with plenty of information on how online businesses could adapt.

It’s a tough world out there for young graduates – fierce competition in the job market means it’s harder than ever to get your talent recognised.

Our solution? We didn’t wait for graduates to come to us – we opened our doors to them. Zoe O’Neil, director of operations, organised our first graduate recruitment day in September.

More than 100 hopefuls accepted our invitation, many of whom impressed us very much. Unavoidable X-Factor comparisons notwithstanding, we ended up with a ‘final four’ that displayed an incredible amount of talent and initiative, and a natural gift for Internet marketing.

So as a direct result of Zoe’s efforts, we’re pleased to welcome Martin Boonham, Kyri Koni, Thomas Lyon and Anisha Birdi to the ClickThrough family.

We launched our online PR service

Our head of content, Ali Harris, is an award-winning journalist – so he knows the value of a well-worded press release better than most.

Ali was keen to bring together his journalistic knowledge and his SEO experience, so he created our online PR service – launched in the autumn.

By signing up for online PR, clients could regularly rank in Google News, get links from trustworthy news sites, and – just as importantly – get big brand updates out into the online sphere, with an engaging and interesting news story.

We started doing it all

In November, we hired two web development experts – Alan Rowe and Matt Hitches.

With Alan and Matt’s know-how, we can now offer an end-to-end service to our clients. We can build websites, fill them with winning, optimised content, and carry out results-proven SEO strategies and PPC campaigns.

We’re all really excited at ClickThrough. The new possibilities that Matt and Alan bring to the company go far beyond their own desks. Content strategies, for example, can be aligned to web development. We can engineer fantastic user experiences. We can do it all.

There’s more

That’s the big ClickThrough news for 2012, but there are a few other moments that we’d like to share with you. The little moments that’ll be bringing smiles to our faces or tears to our eyes for years to come:

Some of us struggled and sweated to support charity. Lily Bowron, senior SEO account executive, sailed her way round the Scottish Island Peaks Race, whilst Glenn Tucker, account director, completed the tough Cleveland Steelman triathlon. Staff also cycled to London and back (on exercise bikes), to raise cash for Sport Relief.

We decorated a ClickThrough-themed Christmas tree to raise money for Lichfield Cathedral.

Internet marketing led to wedding bells for two of our staff, in the first ever ClickThrough wedding!

We had a few fun nights out, including Thai food and plenty of chat for our director of paid search’s birthday and a trip to the cinema to see the latest Batman film.

Our Christmas party was a washout – well, people got soaked anyway. We took to Splash Landings Hotel at Alton Towers for a fun-filled day of waterpark antics, followed by a yummy dinner.